The director could have taken some cues on how to execute the scene from the folks over at the World Poker Tour, who manage to make watching a bunch of guys sitting around playing poker pretty exciting. It's just plain boring and goes on too long, despite the fact that it's broken up into three or four scenes. The poker game as a big part of the reason why I only gave this 4 stars instead of 4 1/2 or even 5. It's pretty clear early on that he's going to lose a boatload of money ($150 million) and will be scrambling to replace it, which happens at an ultra-high stakes poker game. The basic plot has him tracking down a man who acts as a banker to terrorists, investing their money for them and giving them immediate access to it whenever required. He's very arrogant with plenty of ego and despite how tough he is, he's still quite 'green' when it comes to being a 'double-oh'. 'M' is extremely annoyed and angry at how he handled the situation in the opening sequence, giving MI6 a very public black eye and causing her (yes, Judi Densch as 'M', even though this is supposed to be very early in Bond's career) to come close to booting him out of the service. At this point we can discern that Bond has just gained his 007 status very recently. After the credits, THEN comes the action sequence, but again it's not typical as there is an obvious lack of gadgetry, replaced by an extended on-foot chase scene and culminating in a brazen move by Bond. Despite this the graphics were very 60's, which I found interesting since the movie takes place present day. From there we go to the opening credits which for the first time ever do not include silhouettes of naked women. They usually start with a breathtaking action sequence, always more elaborate than the one shown in the previous film, but here we start as described above, which is much more intimate. Not much about this film is very typical as far as what's become established as 'canon' for how a Bond movie should unfold. The man he killed was an operative of the official he sits before now, who is a traitor and within seconds will qualify Bond for 007 status. The film cuts to a grainy and still, black and white sequence showing Bond in a brutal hand to hand fight, where he (of course) comes out the winner, but it certainly isn't clean or pretty. From the conversation we learn that Bond is not yet a 007, having fulfilled only half the requirement of killing two people before being qualified for promotion.

The film opens in black and white and has Bond waiting for a high ranking MI6 official in the official's office.

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